the survival guide to identifying and recovering lost projects

8/18/2019 The Survival Guide to Identifying and Recovering Lost Projects

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roject

Search and Rescue

The Survival Guideto

Identifying and Recovering

Lost Projects

Copyright 2003 - 2013

Prodevia Learning, Inc.

All rights reserved.

TM


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roject Search and Rescue

www.prodevia.com

Table ofContents

1

Table of Contents

How to Complete this Course ................................................................................. 3 How to Complete the Guide and Exercises..............................................................................................3

How to Contact the Instructor ...................................................................................................................3 How to Submit Course Completion and Report PDUs ............................................................................. 3

Completion Checklist ................................................................................................................................4

Course Objectives ...................................................................................................5 Chapter 1 – Introduction to Project Search and Rescue ..........................................7

Have You Ever Been Lost? ......................................................................................................................7 Project Search and Rescue Is a Critical Skill ...........................................................................................8 Defining ‘The Lost Project’........................................................................................................................8 Review Questions..................................................................................................................................... 9

Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being Lost............................................................... 11 Stress and Stressors ..............................................................................................................................11 The Cycle of Behavior ............................................................................................................................12

Confusion ...........................................................................................................................................12

Fear ....................................................................................................................................................14 A Sense of Urgency..............................................................................................................................1

Panic................................................................................................................................................... 15

Poor Decision Making ........................................................................................................................15

Frustration ..........................................................................................................................................16

Anger ..................................................................................................................................................16 Depression and Withdrawal ...............................................................................................................16 Fatigue................................................................................................................................................ 16

Forgetfulness ...................................................................................................................................... 17 The Interdependency of Lost Behavior...................................................................................................17 The Behaviors of Survivors.....................................................................................................................17

The STOP Method..................................................................................................................................18

A Presence of Leadership ......................................................................................................................18

Review Questions...................................................................................................................................20

Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost Projects .................................................................. 21

Preparing to Search for Lost Projects.....................................................................................................21

Planning for the Search ..........................................................................................................................21

Planning a PSAR Review...................................................................................................................21

Defining a List of Projects to Review.................................................................................................. 22 Initiating Conversation with the Project Manager ...................................................................................23

Interviewing Project Participants.............................................................................................................24

Participant’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists ......................................................................25 Participant’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and Budget Objectives.........................................25 Participant’s Understanding of Project Risk .......................................................................................27 Participant’s View of Project Progress ...............................................................................................27 Participant Behaviors and Responses ...............................................................................................30 Words and Phases to Listen For ........................................................................................................33 Looking for Consistent Themes by Project Participants.....................................................................34

Interviewing Project Managers ............................................................................................................... 34

Project Manager’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists.............................................................36 Project Manager’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and Budget Objectives ...............................36 Project Manager’s Understanding of Project Risk..............................................................................37

Project Manager’s View of Project Progress......................................................................................38 Project Manager’s Behaviors and Responses ...................................................................................41 Words and Phrases to Listen For.......................................................................................................44


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Table ofContents

Reviewing Project Processes ................................................................................................................. 45 Project Charter Review ......................................................................................................................45

Scope Review..................................................................................................................................... 45 Schedule Review................................................................................................................................45 Budget Review ................................................................................................................................... 46 Risk Plan Review.................................................................................................................................. 1

Issue Review ......................................................................................................................................46 Change Review ..................................................................................................................................46

Closing the Interview ..............................................................................................................................46


Chapter 4 – Evaluating Project Review Results.................................................... 49

Common Themes from PSAR Interviews...............................................................................................49

Inconsistencies between the Responses of Project Participants ...........................................................49 Inconsistencies between Project Participant Responses and Project Manager Responses .................49

An Interviewee’s Response That Was Unique to the Responses of Other Interviewees.......................50

Positive Findings.....................................................................................................................................50 Preparing a PSAR Discovery Report......................................................................................................50

Executive Summary............................................................................................................................ 50

Assessment ........................................................................................................................................50 Findings ..............................................................................................................................................51

Sharing the Report.................................................................................................................................. 51 Review Questions...................................................................................................................................53

Chapter 5 – Rescuing Lost Projects .......................................................................55

Planning the PSAR Rescue & Recovery Effort ......................................................................................55

Defining and Documenting Objectives ...................................................................................................55 Evaluating Risk and Current Issues ....................................................................................................... 55 Clarifying Scope...................................................................................................................................... 56

Considering Time and Cost ....................................................................................................................56

Developing a Communication Plan for the Project .................................................................................56

Creating a Steering Committee ..............................................................................................................57 Establishing Regular Project Reviews....................................................................................................57

Key Considerations for the PSAR Team Engaged in Rescue & Recovery Efforts ................................57 Review Questions...................................................................................................................................59

Chapter 6 – Recognizing if You are Lost................................................................61 The STOP Method Revisited ..................................................................................................................61

1. Stop ................................................................................................................................................61 2. Think ............................................................................................................................................... 62 3. Observe..........................................................................................................................................62 4. Plan ................................................................................................................................................63

Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................................65


PSAR Crossword Puzzle....................................................................................... 66

Tools .................................................................................................................... 68

High-Level Work Breakdown Structure for PSAR Review .....................................................................68

Project Participant Interview Outline.......................................................................................................69 Suggested Answer Key ......................................................................................... 80

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Project Search and Rescue....................................................................80 Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being Lost .......................................................................................... 80 Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost Projects............................................................................................... 81

Chapter 4 – Evaluating Project Review Results................................................................................. 84 Chapter 5 – Rescuing Lost Projects................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 6 – Recognizing if You Are Lost ........................................................................................... 86

Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 88


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How to Completethis Course

Completion Checklist

Chapter 1 – Introduction to the Project Search and Rescue

Reading

Review Questions

Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being Lost

Reading

Review Questions

Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost Projects

Reading

Review Questions

Chapter 4 – Evaluating Review Results

Reading

Review Questions

Chapter 5 – Rescuing Lost Projects

Reading

Review Questions

Chapter 6 – Recognizing If You Are Lost

Reading

Review Questions

PSAR Crossword Puzzle

Tools

Review Tools

Course Completion

Submit completion to Prodevia Learning and earn 5 credit hours toward your ProfessionalProject Executive (PPE) certification

Submit 5 PDUs to the Project Management Institute


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Course Objectives

5

Course Objectives

By the end of this curriculum the student will be able to:

⇒ Describe what a lost project is and why it is important to uncover lost projects within the

organization.

⇒ Explain the behaviors of humans who find themselves lost as well as understand the behaviors oflost individuals who tend to survive.

⇒ Discuss the parallels between individuals lost in the wilderness and individuals lost on projectefforts.

⇒ List the signs of a lost project.

⇒ Define the necessary components of successfully rescuing lost projects and putting them back onthe right path.


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Student Notes

Chapter 1Introduction

7

There are many striking parallels

between how people behave when

lost in the wilderness and how people

behave when lost on project efforts.

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Project

Search and Rescue

Have You Ever Been Lost?

The experience of being lost can be a daunting one. Consider anexperience that you may have had in your lifetime where you have

physically found yourself lost. Perhaps you remember being separated

from your parents as a small child. Perhaps you were driving in a car

without a sense of where you were. Or, maybe you found yourself lost

while hiking along a mountain path.

What feelings did you experience? How did being lost affect your

judgment or your ability to make thoughtful decisions? How were you or

others able to ‘find’ you again? Consider these questions for a moment

and make some notes for yourself.

This course attempts to analyze the behaviors of lost individuals and

apply this understanding to the project environment. Amazingly, there

are lessons to learn from individuals who find themselves lost in the

wilderness which can be applied to individuals who find themselves lost

within the complexities of projects no longer on the right path.

Because there are many striking parallels between how people behave

when they are lost in the woods and how people behave when they are

lost in their projects, the common body of knowledge around wilderness

Search and Rescue efforts can help both the project manager on the

project that has become lost as well as the rescue team charged with the

recovery of lost project efforts.

This course will begin by exploring

the common body of knowledge

surrounding Search and Rescue

teams attempting to find individuals

lost in the wilderness. We will

uncover the common stages of

emotions and behaviors of those

who have become lost, and we will

discuss the behaviors of those who

survive through the experience of being lost. We will define what a lostproject is. We will outline the parallels between lost individual behavior

and lost projects. We will also review a set of guidelines to assist a

Project Search and Rescue (PSAR) team charged with searching for lost

projects, and we will discuss recommendations for project rescue efforts.


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Student Notes


8

Project Search and Rescue Is a Critical Skill

It is essential in today’s complex project environments that we learn to

identify projects and teams that have become lost. In competitive

environments where budgets are tight and time-to-market is often the

difference between project success and failure, it is important to ensure

that projects are staying on the path to completion, and that this path is

the one that will bring the organization a successful solution.

Many organizations face the challenge of determining which project

efforts are staying the course and which ones are not. All projects can

be susceptible to becoming lost, and most organizations cannot afford

for this to happen. Even the most experienced project member can

become disoriented as to the direction of project work. Just as a person

lost in the forest may panic, a project member who gets ‘lost’ in the

wilderness of a complex project is susceptible to panic as well. This

panic can lead a project even farther off of the path.Perhaps the biggest challenge to the recovery effort is the fact that those

in lost projects are often afraid of being found. People who are lost in

the woods generally want to be found – though they are often very

apologetic to the rescuers. On the other hand, people on lost projects

often do not want to be ‘discovered’ lost. Just as lost hikers may feel

foolish when rescued, professional project managers and team members

may also find themselves overly conscious of appearing incompetent to

peers or clients. Although it is a critical project survival skill, this aversion

to signaling for help causes many projects that are on the edge of the

wilderness to walk right off of the marked trails and into the unknown.

The work of putting lost projects back on the path is a challenging but

fulfilling one. It is critical to the long-term health of an organization that

lost projects are recognized and rescued.

Defining ‘The Lost Project’

This course defines a lost project as an initiative that has a lack of

strategic direction or that has become stuck in a vicious cycle that keeps

it from achieving its objectives. This is more than projects that may have

experienced schedule slips or budget overruns. Lost projects are

composed of leadership and teams who have no method for recovering

from trouble, or they may not even recognize that they are in trouble.

Some lost projects are easier to detect than others. In your own

organization, you may be aware of where it has become obvious that

there are projects without direction or that seem to be ‘stuck’ in a pattern

of achieving nothing. These projects have the advantage of easy

discovery; they can begin the recovery process right away. But, there

are other projects that can be out of view. No one is aware of these


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Student Notes


9

A lost project is an initiative that has

a lack of strategic direction or that has

become stuck in a vicious cycle that

keeps it from achieving its objectives.

projects being lost. For these projects, the route to rescue is much more

treacherous.

Undiscovered lost projects become a drain on an organization’s

resources and often create opportunity costs – those solutions that can

never be realized because resources are being expended in lost projectefforts.

Lost projects can occur due to a variety of factors. Organizational

politics, ambiguous objectives, lack of planning and the human factor all

can play a role in a project becoming lost. All of these will be discussed

more in depth as you move through this course.

The search for lost projects and lost

project teams begins with a study of

lost behavior. The behaviors that

are discussed within the next

section of this course will be thestarting point through the maze of

uncertainty for lost projects.

Review Questions

The following review questions will assist you in developing

comprehension of the material contained in this course introduction.

Answer the following questions in a separate notebook.

1. Define a lost project.

2. Why is recovering lost projects a critical skill set?

3. Why is it that lost projects can be difficult to find?

4. What advantage do easily discovered lost projects have that

hidden lost projects do not have?

5. How do lost projects create an opportunity cost for the

organization?

6. What are some of the factors that can create lost projects?


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Student Notes

Chapter 2The Behaviors of

Being Lost

Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being

Lost

Before we can begin to show the parallels between a lost hiker andthe lost project team member, it is important to understand the

Search and Rescue common body of knowledge around the human

psychology of being lost. These parallels will be discussed later in

this course; however, you are encouraged to make notes in the

margins of this text as comparative themes occur to you between

hikers lost in the wilderness and project stakeholders lost on

projects.

Stress and Stressors

The analysis of lost behavior begins with a discussion of stress and

stressors. Webster defines stress as a state of bodily or mental

tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent

equilibrium. In common language, stress is a feeling we experience

when an unfamiliar situation or condition, a stressor , is placed upon

us.

Stress has many

advantages for the

individual. Stress forces

an individual to become

more aware of his

environment and

stimulates him to work ina more thoughtful

manner. However, too

much stress – or too

many stressors placed

upon a person – can create a negative type of stress that we

commonly refer to as distress. In this more destructive form of

stress, individuals can find themselves less able to think clearly and

more likely to make mistakes.

It is common for soldiers to be put through stress training to help

them learn how they will react to stressors and to resulting stress.

The military understands that hard-skill training alone will not save a

soldier when he is confronted with challenges in a military exercise.

A soldier’s well-being will also be drastically influenced by his ability

to understand his stress, and more specifically, how particular

stressors will cause him to act constructively toward his survival or

destructively to his peril.

Stress?Or

Distress?S t resso r

S t r e s s o r

S t r e s s o r

S tressor

S t r e

s s o r

S t r e

s s o r

Stress?Or

Distress?S t resso r

S t r e s s o r

S t r e s s o r

S tressor

S t r e

s s o r

S t r e

s s o r


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Student Notes

Chapter 2The Behaviors ofBeing Lost

The initial sensation of being

physically lost is referred to

as spatial disorientation.

Most individuals have not had the benefit of stress training. And, this

becomes evident when those individuals who would venture into a

forest or wilderness environment find themselves lost without an

understanding of how stressors can influence their ability to think and

work rationally. There is a common set of emotions and behaviorsthat lost individuals will typically display, and in many cases, they will

not understand what is happening to them until it is too late.

Stressors when lost in the wilderness can include a number of things

such as weather and climate, terrain, wild animals, darkness, lack of

experience, limited resources, physical health (or lack thereof), and

mental state. When too many of these factors are added together to

create a situation of distress, then the resulting emotional state of

lost persons can snowball.

Question for your consideration: What behaviors to you think that

a lost person would display? Make a few notes in the Student Notes

margin before moving on in your reading of this section. Compare

your notes with the behaviors that are discussed next.

The Cycle of Behavior

Individuals experience a range of thoughts and behaviors when

confronted with a situation where they are lost. Interestingly, these

behaviors can occur in a linear order, or they can cycle through a lostindividual many times. Understanding this common set of behaviors

is the first step to understanding how human beings think and

behave when in a lost situation where stressors are placed upon

them.

Confusion

The initial sensation of being physically lost is referred to as spatial

disorientation . In actuality, most people operate everyday in some

state of disorientation. The reason for this is simple. A person’s

environment is much too complex for him to fully comprehend.

Because this is the case, people build simpler mental models of their

physical location. These models are

generally relational in nature. This can

be demonstrated by asking a person

to precisely locate his position on a

map. Most individuals will not be able

to successfully do this because his

manner of moving from one place to


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Student Notes


Being Lost

Bending the map

to explain reality

is not based in reality

at all.

another is relational. Even a trip from home to work has some

amount of ambiguity for the average person. If someone finds

himself off of a common route, he may have difficulty in positioning

himself on a map once lost.

This can be demonstrated further by thinking back to a time whenyou have written down a phone number on a note card that later was

misplaced. Your mental model tells you that the note card was

colored red. You begin to search for that phone number based on

the model that you should be searching for a red piece of paper.

When one cannot be found, you search with greater ambition to find

a red piece of paper. You search the same places many times.

Then, someone else finds the phone number in a location you had

searched many times already. The note card was actually colored

blue. But, because your model of reality said red, you didn’t consider

that the model was faulty.

How many times have you searched only to find that a lost item was

right in front of you? The reason why you could not locate the item

was not because it was not there but because your model of what

you were looking for was incorrect. Our ability to build these mental

models saves humans time and energy, but it also has a price tag –

susceptibility to spatial disorientation. It should be a red flag to each

of us when we begin to believe that our model is more real than the

reality in front of us.

Hikers lost in the wilderness who become spatially disoriented begin

to rationalize things that are deviant to a plan of survival. Spatial

disorientation often begins as a sense of things not being quite right.Though the realization of being lost may not yet be present, there is

a feeling that something is amiss.

For example, the lost hiker beginning to experience the effects of

spatial disorientation will begin to rationalize that the landmark that

‘should’ be there (i.e. rock formation or creek) has changed

somehow. “I’m in the right spot,” a hiker will tell himself. “It’s the rock

that has moved (or the creek dried up – whatever the case)”.

This is a concept that is often referred to as bending the map. By

this it is meant that people begin to

explain situations that don’t conform to

their mental model, and that these

explanations are illogical with reality.

Clearly, a rock cannot move on its own.

However, a person who is allowing

spatial disorientation to affect his

judgment will bend the map by illogically

arguing why his mental model is reality.


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Student Notes


Fear is a necessary survival

mechanism.

In the latter stages of spatial disorientation, lost individuals can begin

to experience the feelings of vertigo and can even become physically

ill from the experience. Later in this course, we will apply the

concept of spatial disorientation to project stakeholders.

Question for your consideration: Have you ever found yourself

‘bending the map’? Jot down your personal experience of bending

the map in the Student Notes margin before moving on in your

reading of this section.

Fear

Fear is a necessary survival mechanism. Fear causes human

beings to consider the dangers of their environment. It can also

serve to aid an individual in making more mistakes as anxiety sets in. Anxiety is the result of a person’s inability to logically think through

fear. There are many situations - fear

stressors - that may play a part in

creating anxiety for the lost hiker.

Common fears that will often be

experienced by the lost hiker who has

not been able to find his way include

the following items:

⇒ Fear of being alone. Human beings are social creaturesand often do not think clearly when faced with the fear

stressor of isolation. Unfamiliar surroundings serve to

escalate this fear of being alone. This feeling is further

aggravated by the uncertainty of when surroundings will

again become familiar. Again, individuals who are lost in the

woods alone run the risk of allowing this fear to cause

greater levels of panic and poor decision making.

⇒ Fear of darkness. For those lost hikers who have foundthemselves lost at night, the intensity of fear increases.

Darkness represents a lack of control over the environment.

Without the advantage of vision, hikers will often feel both

more exposed and less in control of the situation. This riskstressor can place additional anxiety on a lost individual.

⇒ Fear of animals. Strange sounds and rustling noises withinthe landscape of the terrain become much more of a

stressor on a hiker when he experiences the sensation of

being lost. These fears tend to escalate, and human beings


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Student Notes


Being Lost

The behavior of hurrying

to find the right place

often results in a hiker

becoming even farther off

of the path.

lost in the wilderness will revert to an instinctual fear of

possible predators.

⇒ Fear of suffering. Most lost individuals faced with theuncertainty of when they will be ‘found’ again will become

increasingly concerned with their ability to hold their own and

not suffer the physical problems of thirst, hunger, heat &

cold, injury, fatigue, or other impacts of resource limitations.

⇒ Fear of dying. The fear of suffering usually leads to theadded fear of dying. Individuals lost in the woods who face

the anticipation of death will often begin to consider those

things in their life left undone, who will take care of their

family, and what will people say.

A Sense of Urgency

As fears begin to create more stress on anindividual, he may begin to experience full

distress. The usual outcome of these

stressors of confusion and fear is the dire

urge to push onward. As the hiker can no

longer deny that he is completely lost there

is a growing sense of urgency to find his

destination. Interestingly enough, the

behavior intended to save the hiker from

being lost will be his undoing. The behavior of ‘hurrying to find the

right place’ often results in the hiker becoming even farther off of the

right path.

Panic

At this stage of emotion, a hiker can begin to rationalize near

anything. “It’s just over that next ridge”, he’ll repeat with growing

delirium. Critical details are re-evaluated and deemed less important

or are overlooked entirely. As panic takes its toll on the mind, the

capacity for making thoughtful decisions diminishes greatly. The

number of assumptions begins to build, while risk evaluation and risk

mitigation is all but abandoned. This ‘denial of risks’ is a consistent

behavior that most lost people exhibit.

Poor Decision Making

Panic leads lost individuals to make poor decisions. Without a point

of reference for where they are and with the stressors of fear

creating panic, individuals will ignore obvious flaws of judgment and

make decisions that will be to the detriment of survival.

There are many cases of hikers who were lost in the woods and

continued to make decisions that were clearly not in their best


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Student Notes


Attempting to continue to use a

mental model as the correct gauge oflocation will serve to make the

environment less familiar.

interest. For example, failure to make a shelter or fire, failure to stay

put, discarding critical equipment and clothing, and failure to signal

when spotting search aircraft are behaviors of individuals who have

panicked. To the outside observer, these things would obviously

seem irrational. To the lost individual, rational thought is difficult tomaintain.

Believe it or not, remains of people have been found who died of

dehydration – yet they still had water in their canteen. This is

evidence of the fact that people do not think clearly nor do they make

sound decisions when in a mode of panic.

Frustration

The lack of results that occurs

from poor decision-making will

soon grow into a feeling of

frustration. In searching againand again to find the right path

back to a known point, hikers

will begin to experience

increasing frustration.

Attempting to continue to use

their mental model as the correct gauge of location will serve to

make the environment less familiar. A lost hiker who has continued

bending the map of reality will find himself in a situation where the

entire landscape is strange and landmarks are completely unfamiliar.

If frustration is allowed to continue unchecked it will often lead to

anger.

Anger

Anger, an escalation of the feelings of frustration, can encourage

impulsive reactions, further irrational behavior, poorly thought-out

decision-making and in some instances, it will cause an individual to

give up.

Depression and Withdrawal

Depression and withdrawal often follow when anger has not created

a successful solution to the problem of being lost. Once a person

has reached anger and continued to experience additionalfrustrations, the cycle of anger and frustration will lead to depression

which is quickly followed by withdrawal.

Fatigue

The emotions of frustration, anger, and depression usually create

fatigue in most lost individuals. The dangers associated with fatigue


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Student Notes


Being Lost

People who are lost often

survive not because of a

particular skill-set or

access to tools, but rather

because of their state of

mind.

are significant. A fatigued individual will be

even less capable of maintaining himself

until rescue arrives.

Forgetfulness

Many times, all of these behaviors

culminate in forgetfulness. It is not

unusual in rescue cases that the lost

individual cannot remember the decisions

that were made while lost, nor can they

remember the events that occurred while

being lost. Forgetfulness is the sign that

all of the other emotions have taken their

toll on the lost individual.

The Interdependency of Lost Behavior

Each of these stages build, layered one on top of the other. For the

person who is not aware of how these emotions are playing a part on

his ability to survive, these feelings will continue to compound and

escalate creating a dangerous situation for the lost individual.

Question for your consideration: What relationships can you see

between lost person behavior and the behaviors of team members

lost on projects? Make a few notes in the Student Notes margin

before moving on in your reading of this section.

The Behaviors of Survivors

Now that we have considered the typical behaviors of lost

individuals, it is important to consider what behaviors allow

individuals who are lost in the wilderness to survive and either find

their way to a known location or to be rescued by a Search and

Rescue team. What the Search and Rescue common body of

knowledge tells us about survivors is this:

People who are lost in the wilderness oftensurvive not because of a particular skill-set

or access to tools, but rather because of

their state of mind.

Though skill set is an important component

to survival, having the tools alone is not

enough. Individuals who survive lost

situations seem to rely on a simple doctrine


Anger

Forgetfulness

Fatigue

Frustration


Panic

A Sense of Urgency

Fear

Confusion

The Cycle of Lost Behavior


Anger

Forgetfulness

Fatigue

Frustration


Panic

A Sense of Urgency

Fear

Confusion

The Cycle of Lost Behavior


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Student Notes


Being Lost

injured not only bonds the group together, but it also keeps the team

focused on the purpose – survival.

Shelter becomes the next critical component of survival. Shelter is

the safety net for keeping the members of a lost group healthy.

Fire is also an important component of survival. For most individuals

lost in the wilderness, fire represents more than just light and

warmth. It also represents some amount of control over the

environment. This is especially important to the mental stability of

the lost person.

The ability to signal for help is the next component of survival

mechanisms. It keeps the team focused on the goal, to be rescued.

The resources of water and food are last to be considered. By

performing the STOP method, lost groups are able to better utilize

scarce resources instead of wasting them and succumbing to the

emotional stages discussed earlier.

Question for your consideration: What relationships can you see

between the behavior of survivors and the behaviors of team

members who survive on lost project efforts? Make a few notes in

the Student Notes margin before moving on in your reading.

The information in this section serves to establish groundwork for the

student as this course begins the work of uncovering lost project

efforts within an organization as the precursor for rescuing them.


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20

Student Notes


Review Questions

The following review questions will assist you in developing

comprehension of the material contained in this course chapter.

Answer the following questions in a separate notebook.

1. Define stress and stressors.

2. Describe the difference between stress and distress.

3. What are some of the common cycles of behavior of lost

individuals?

4. What are the common fears

5. of lost individuals when lost in the wilderness?

6. What are some of the common behaviors of survivors?

7. Define the STOP method.

8. Why is leadership important for lost individuals?

9. What is the seven-point checklist suggested for leaders of lost

teams?


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Student Notes

Chapter 3Discovering Lost

Projects

21

Thoughtful planning is

critical to a successful

PSAR effort.

Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost

Projects

A s discussed earlier during the introduction to this course, lostprojects can be difficult to find within an organization. For the Project

Search and Rescue (PSAR) team charged with finding lost projects

within an organization, the best place to begin is often by talking to

the people engaged in the work – project managers, team members,

and other stakeholders – who find themselves tied to delivering a

solution. In this section, we will begin searching for lost project

efforts.

Preparing to Search for Lost Projects

Project Search and Rescue teams are established for many reasons.

For example, a project management office may be charged with

auditing an organization’s projects as part of an overall portfolio

status report to the organization’s leadership. Other teams who were

originally brought together to evaluate the maturity of project

management processes used in an organization may often find

themselves uncovering projects in trouble, and thus begin to

concentrate on discovering initiatives that are lost. Whatever the

reason, PSAR teams provide a critical

function to a project organization, and

planning thoughtfully to engage in this

discovery work is important. It is

important, however, that the PSAR team

membership can be considered objective

participants of the review and recovery

process.

Planning for the Search

PSAR teams must take the time to plan just as competent Search

and Rescue teams must plan before executing a search for a lost

person or group. Unlike the Search and Rescue team who seeks to

find a lost hiker, PSAR teams are often not aware of specifically

those project initiatives that are lost. Because this is the case,

planning for PSAR teams is crucial.

Planning a PSAR Review

A PSAR team needs to take the time to build a project plan for the

PSAR review effort. This project plan should include a project

charter identifying the reason for undertaking the effort and the high-

level expectation for objectives and scope. Scope can be further

clarified through a work breakdown structure effort. Scheduling and


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Student Notes

Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects

22

communications planning should also be of prime importance for this

effort. Additionally, the PSAR team may also want to consider the

risks, especially political risks, which may be experienced as a result

of this effort.

A high-level work breakdown structure for the PSAR Review effort(Template X.1) is included in the Tools section of this guide. This

work breakdown structure can be modified by a PSAR team to

accommodate most review efforts.

A PSAR team will need to determine project approach. For example,

will multiple review efforts be underway concurrently, or will one

project review occur at a time? This will often be determined based

on the number of reviewer resources that are available to conduct

the effort as well as the time and cost implications of running

concurrent project reviews. Whatever approach is taken, it is

important that the PSAR team document this approach through the

project charter or similar documentation.

Defining a List of Projects to Review

Defining a list of projects for review is a critical one. For

organizations that have an enterprise solution where project status is

objectively driven from a software tool, this can be a good place to

begin. Projects that demonstrate over-runs, significant scope creep,

and/or schedule slippages can be a good place to begin.

However, for organizations where status reports are provided

through a more manual process of written status, these reports of a

project are not always the best judge of lost projects. For example,project managers and teams who recognize that they are lost, but

who for reasons of pride or fear do not signal that they are lost, will

often dress up a status report such that it does not always accurately

reflect the condition of the project. Additionally, those on projects

who are lost may not even recognize that their initiatives are lost. If

you will remember from the last section, lost individuals who

experience a state of confusion or spatial disorientation will not know

enough to recognize that they are lost and that they should signal for

rescue. In similar fashion, lost project members will often not

recognize that they should signal through status reporting.

A list of lost projects can begin to be developed by looking for theobvious signs of trouble. This could include projects who are

regularly seeking project variances, projects who are regularly going

back to the client to obtain more funding, projects who have

continually slipped initial milestones as well as revision dates to

those milestones, and projects where unmanaged scope creep has

occurred.


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Student Notes


24

Have you discussed with

project participants why

the PSAR Review is being

conducted?

Interviewing Project Partic ipants

The interviews of project participants, members of the project team

who either are responsible for components of work and/or who are

physically completing the work, will be the first and perhaps the most

significant toward identifying lost projects. It is not necessary that

every project participant be interviewed; however, a sampling of

participants from various areas of the total project scope can be most

beneficial in gaining a project-wide perspective. These interviews

should ideally be conducted one-on-one. The information obtained

from the interview should be anonymous for the purposes of the

PSAR report to prepared later. Inform participants that their

information will be kept confidential and their names will not

specifically be attached to comments or information provided by the

interview. This can be an important component of participants being

willing to discuss the project in more detail.

It is extremely important to begin each interview by discussing with

the participant the objectives of the PSAR Review and why it is being

undertaken. It is important to address that their involvement in the

PSAR Review is an opportunity for them to suggest improvements

as well as to discuss any observations that they would like to

contribute about the project and its staff. This interview is much

more than the opportunity to gain information from a participant. It

provides the opportunity of looking into the project from his or her

perspective.

A PSAR interviewer should be sensitive to the fact that the

participant’s involvement in this interview can sometimes beuncomfortable for him. He may view the interview as an intrusion of

his team and the project work. During this interviewing process it is

important for the PSAR team to work respectfully with project

participants understanding that often the PSAR Review will be seen

as a negative and not a positive. The most effective way to gain the

cooperation of project teams is to deal with them in an open, honest,

and respectful manner – always. A lack of honesty by a PSAR team

can foster a project team’s willingness to stay lost as a method of

ensuring failure of the PSAR effort. The PSAR team should be an

advocate for the project team.

While interviewing, the PSAR interviewers

will want to pay attention to the answers to

questions they ask not only from the

standpoint of content but also from the

standpoint of attitudes and behaviors. In

particular, the PSAR team should look for

behaviors consistent with those discussed


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Student Notes


Projects

25

in the previous section of lost person behavior. This will be

discussed in more depth below. A Project Participant Interview

Outline is provided for you in the Tools section of this course,

Template X.2, and is discussed fully below.

Participant’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists

For those individuals that will be interviewed, it is insightful to ask

what is their understanding of the strategic implications of the

solution their project provides. Some individuals will not know an

answer for this question. Others will have one. It is important for

PSAR interviewers to look for consistency between the participants’

answers and the documented reason for the project.

Many times, a participant’s failure to understand the reasons why a

project has been undertaken leads to an inability to make a

connection between the tactical elements of providing deliverables

and the strategic impact of those deliverables on the receivingorganization.

PSAR interviewers who find that the project participants do not know,

do not understand, or who holds an inconsistent view of the project

vision should consider this a sign that the project may be lost.

However, this is not always the case. It will be important to look at

the project participant’s understanding of the strategic implications of

the project combined with the components discussed next.

Participant’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and

Budget Objectives

Project participants should be asked about the current objectives

around scope, schedule and budget. Do they have an

understanding of the expectations for these items, and further, do

they have an understanding of why these objectives are what they

are?

For example, if a client has mandated an end date for the solution,

do the project participants understand the need for this date? Is

there, generally speaking, a recognition of why any constraints on

objectives exist as they do? This is important because, just as hikers

need reference points in order to find their way using a map, project

participants must understand the reference points of the project’smap, or project plan. Project participants who either do not know

what project objectives are who do not have a good understanding of

why constraints on these objectives exist may not have a clear

understanding of goals, or reference points of the project map.


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Student Notes


26

Are the project

participants suffering

from means-ends

inversion?

It can also be useful to ask project participants if they believe that the

objectives are achievable. Objectives that are aggressive is one

matter, however, objectives that participants believe to be unrealistic

should be noted. The PSAR interview should query further to

uncover why the participant believes the objectives to be eitherachievable or not.

PSAR interviewers should also ask more specifically about the scope

that is being provided within the project. In particular, the PSAR

team should pay particular attention to the discussion of deliverables

versus activities.

Deliverables, as defined within this course,

are the end results of actions.

Deliverables are the tangible components

of a project and the representations of

project scope. These components may be

internal to the project effort, such as a

signed requirements document, or parts of

the final customer solution, such as

hardware. Activities are the actions that

must be taken by the team to achieve these deliverables. A

participant focus that is more toward activities and less toward

deliverables may be an indication that scope is not clarified for the

participant. This focus on activities over deliverables is often

referred to as means-ends inversion. Means-ends inversion is an

indication that project team is at risk of not understanding the course

of the project, the project map.

PSAR interviewers should query these project participants further to

ascertain whether or not the scope of work is clearly understood by

participants. The absence of scope statements, work breakdown

structure or other such scope decomposition tools, and project

schedules which do not hold milestones representing deliverables

are suggestions that scope may not be clearly represented by the

plan and known by the participants. Further, it may also indicate that

the project participants have no point of reference of the project map.

Project schedules should always support the development of

deliverables; project schedules that do not show the achievement of

deliverables is reason to suspect that a project and team is in dangerof being lost.

Not all project participants are privy to the budget components of a

project, however, for those who are it is important to ask if they

understand the budget, how it was arrived at, and do they believe

that the budget is achievable. Participants who were made a part of

the development of budget estimates - hours and/or dollars – should

be able to discuss how those estimates were generated and why. If


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Student Notes


Projects

27

Remember the distinction between risk and

issues – project participants might not

recognize the difference.

there seems to be no formula for how estimates were generated, it

could also be a sign that the project’s participants are lost related to

project objectives.

Participant’s Understanding o f Project Risk

A project participant’s understanding of the project’s risk holds

particular importance for a PSAR interviewer. Does the participant

understand the risks present? Have those risks been communicated

and documented? Are there mitigations in place to correct risks

above a standard threshold of risk tolerance, and are the project

participants regularly reviewing risk plans for changes and updates?

When asked about risk, some participants may begin to discuss

project issues, or current problems that the project is experiencing.

These issues represented risks, or potential problems, that may have

not been dealt with previously. A PSAR interviewer will want to pay

attention to the items that the participants bring up regarding projectissues. Project issues are discussed in more detail on page 41.

A participant’s lack of

understanding regarding

project risk as well as his

lack of engagement toward

risk planning could be an

indication that the project

and its participants are

either lost or in danger of

being lost.

Participant’s View of Project Progress

Adherence to the project plan

PSAR interviewers should query participants about how well the

actual work is adhering to the project plan. Participants who are

either unwilling to discuss project progress or who suggest that the

project is off the path of the plan should be questioned further for

more information. Included in information that the PSAR interviewer

will want to look for are changes occurring on the project, current

issues that the project is experiencing, updates to the plan, the

environment and health of the project team, and the impact that theorganization or other project work has on this project.

Project changes

Change is both a regular and challenging occurrence on project

initiatives. The existence of change itself does not create a lost

project; however, change not managed well is disorienting, causing a

greater risk for a project to become lost.


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Student Notes


28

Project participants often have a unique view of project change. For

them, change is often seen as a negative, and there is limited or no

focus on the benefits a change provides for the client and for the

business. This must be considered when interviewing participants

about change since many will hold negative views of changeregardless of the benefits to the business organization.

When discussing project change, the PSAR interviewer should ask

the project participant what his views are of the changes that are

currently happening on a project. But, these views alone are not

enough information to ascertain whether or not the project is

troubled. Further questions are required.

Are changes being managed diligently through a process of change

control? Are changes being added into the project without any

supporting documentation? Are changes jeopardizing the

participant’s and team’s ability to deliver the originally agreed to

solution for the time and cost objectives that have been set forth?

Have revised objectives been agreed to by the client organization

and the project manager regarding creating revised benchmarks of

project success given new changes that have been implemented?

Project participants may have little understanding of the business

advantages of change, however, they generally have a first-hand

and realistic view of the impacts of changes upon the progress of the

solution and its ability to be successful.

Project issues

For those participants who have not already brought up the topic ofproject issues during the discussion of risk, it will be important that

the PSAR interviewer specifically request information about the

current issues the project is experiencing.

The PSAR interviewer should consider not only the issues that the

participant discusses during the interview but also the attitudes and

experiences regarding the discussed issues.

Do the participants believe that the current project issues can be

addressed? What process does the project team use to document

and manage issues? Is the process working? Do project

participants believe that the current issues are a threat to the overall

success of the project objectives?

Where an abundance of issues exist and where no process is being

used to address them, the PSAR interviewer should see this as an

indication that the project team is lost.


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Student Notes


Projects

29

How do the team members feel about the

influences of the larger organization on

the project effort?

Project plan updates

A participant’s view of updates to the plan provides much information

to the PSAR team. A participant who believes that the plan is not

being managed effectively or who is not aware of how the project

plan is being updated as needed may be an indication of seriousproblems regarding the health of a project.

In particular, a participant should be asked questions about how

actual work information is logged. For example, does the participant

provide information regarding the work that is completed as well as

provide additional information regarding the work required to

complete the deliverable as an update to the original estimate for

that deliverable? Was the participant provided with a method to

provide actual data to the project manager? Does the project

manager regularly initiate conversations regarding updates to the

risk plan, issues register, project schedule, budget, or other

components of the project plan?

A participant who indicates that there is an absence of regular

interactions with the project manager regarding progress could

indicate a project of lost participants.

Health of the pro ject environment

A project participant often has a very accurate view of the

environment of the project. In particular, he is often aware of

challenges among team members or between departments that

those team members may represent. A PSAR interviewer should

ask participants about how the project team works together. Doesthe participant believe that members of the team share a common

goal of what is to be achieved? Does the participant believe that the

team membership is respectful to one another? Does the participant

feel that the working relationships between members are positive?

Some participants may be unwilling to discuss these matters in detail

as it might be considered against the morays of the group. A PSAR

interviewer should be sensitive to this and respect those participants

who are unwilling to discuss matters that they feel could jeopardize

working relationships with other team members.

However, for those team

members who are willing to

discuss troubles that the

project membership may be

experiencing, it can be

useful information for a

PSAR team.


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Student Notes


30

The influence of the larger organization

Participants often have a terrific perspective of the political influences

of the larger organization or other project efforts on the project in

question. Many will be able to articulate very well the challenges that

the ‘wilderness’ of the organization brings to the effort. Withoutleading the topics of conversation here, a PSAR interviewer should

ask participants if they see any challenges the project is

experiencing due to factors outside the work of the project team. For

example, perhaps there are other projects concurrently running that

are competing for time from the same project resources. Or,

perhaps there is a recent change of leadership in the organization

that is creating unique challenges for the team.

A PSAR interviewer should note the challenges that are brought up

as well as ask participants their thoughts on solutions for those

challenges. Participants should be encouraged to share any

suggestions they have which could assist projects in running more

smoothly.

Participant Behaviors and Responses

During the PSAR interview, the interviewer will receive much

information from the participants. This information will not be content

only. Participants will have feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that will

add context to the content they provide in the interview. The

interviewer should be aware of these throughout the entire interview

and note them.

The information discussed in the previous section suggestedbehaviors common to individuals lost in the wilderness. These same

behaviors will be present within participants who do find themselves

lost on project efforts.

Confusion

Does the participant show a sense of confusion over the details of

the project or his role in it? Does the participant seem confused

about the reasons why the project is being undertaken or the goals

of the project? Does the participant seem to be disoriented such that

he cannot quickly respond to questions presented by the PSAR

interviewer?

Frustration

Is there a general sense of frustration as the participant discusses

project status, issues, risk and progress toward objectives?

A Sense of Urgency

Does the participant have a sense that there is not enough time to

suspend work for the PSAR Review? Is there a general sense that


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Student Notes


Projects

31

Fear may keep project participants from

presenting project information. A PSAR

interviewer should watch for signs of fear.

the participant feels the need to hurry to ‘get the project back on the

path’?

Fear

Does the participant seem

nervous or scared of

discussing some details

and not others? Or, does

the participant refuse to

give more in-depth

answers? If the participant

does answer openly, does he also express a fear regarding the

project effort? Earlier in this course, we discussed specific fears that

individuals lost in the wilderness experience. The parallels for lost

project participants are striking. Consider the following list of fears

below and understand that these fears may play a role in how

forthcoming a project participant will be.

⇒ Fear of being alone. The project participant may havefears that he is alone in his feelings of being lost, or the

participant may feel that the project is ‘abandoned or

isolated’ within the organization.

⇒ Fear of darkness. The project participant feels a lack ofcontrol over the environment in which he works. This lack of

control creates a fear suggesting that the effort is lost.

⇒ Fear of animals. The project participant fears predatory

team members as well as individuals outside the project

team.

⇒ Fear of suffering. The project participant fears that he orshe will be blamed for a lost effort or that his career will be

negatively impacted.

⇒ Fear of dying. The project participant fears that he or shewill lose a job.

Panic

Are there signs that the participant is panicked about the project

effort? Does the participant justify the progress of the project

through assumptions that seem risky or without the use of thoughtful

judgment? Does the participant expressly state that the team is

panicked about the condition of the project?

A project participant who is in a state of panic will have a very difficult

time hiding this emotion from a PSAR interviewer. A PSAR

interviewer will see many of the earlier behaviors of confusion,


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Student Notes


32

frustration, a sense of urgency, and fear expressed in a panicked

individual.

Anger

Participants may show anger toward the PSAR interviewer. This by

itself does not suggest that the participant is angry about the

condition of the project. Instead, the PSAR interviewer should look

for signs of anger from the participant regarding decisions made

within the project, the status or progress of the project, or the

environment that is impacting the project. Does the participant seem

angry as he is queried about the condition of the project effort?

It is important to differentiate anger regarding the project and anger

resulting from the interview. Look for participant interactions where

anger is present in some answers and not in others. For example, a

participant who shows a calm demeanor when discussing one topic

may display signs of anger when asked about another project topic. A PSAR interviewer should note anger when shown and the topic

that initiated the anger.

In some cases, the angry participant will refuse to cooperate in the

PSAR interview. The PSAR interviewer should move through the list

of questions as politely and respectfully as possible and note the

participant’s unwillingness to interact.


Does the participant express concern about poor decision making in

the project? Does he articulate the poor decisions of others and the

impact of those decisions on the project? Does the participantsuggest that he has been encouraged to undertake activities that he

believed to be poor decisions? Why did he believe these decisions

to be poor?

Fatigue

Does the participant seem to be fatigued when queried about the

project? Does the participant indicate that he is tired of the effort and

that it is draining his ability to be productive?

Depression and w ithdrawal

Does the participant seem to be apathetic to the PSAR Review? Isthere a sense that the project participant has resigned himself to the

current condition of the project effort?

Forgetfulness

Is the participant unable to articulate how decisions on the project

were arrived at? Is the participant able to explain a path of situations

and decisions that have led the team to this point on the project

effort? Does the participant seem to struggle with remembering


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Student Notes


34

PLEASE NOTE: You will find

common elements in this

section of the course,

Interviewing Project Managers,

and the previous course section,

Interviewing Project Participants.

However – read carefully as the

interview with the project

manager also contains unique

differences from the interviews

conducted with project

participants.

Looking for Consistent Themes by Project Participants

The comments of one participant alone may not indicate a lost

initiative; however, consistent themes stated by many participants

can demonstrate that the project is off course.

A PSAR interviewer will need to look for consistent themes when

interviewing participants. These themes can be utilized in querying

the project manager as well as reviewing the project with the PSAR

team.

Summary of Interviewing Project Participants

1 Participant’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists

2 Participant’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and Budget Objectives

3 Participant’s Understanding of Project Risk

4 Participant’s View of Project Progress

5 Participant Behaviors and Responses

6 Words and Phases to Listen For

7 Looking for Consistent Themes by Project Participants

Interviewing Project Managers

The interview with the project

manager assists the PSAR team in

better understanding the leadership

that exists within a project team. The

analysis of the project manager’s

responses to questions helps a

PSAR team not only understand

whether or not the initiative is lost but

also whether or not the leadership

exists to bring the effort back on track

if it is lost.

The PSAR interviewer should take a

moment when beginning the

interview to discuss the objectives of

the interview as well as general

themes that were shared by

participants. It is not advisable to

share specific comments by specific


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Student Notes


Projects

35

The interview with the project manager

serves to establish whether or not the

leadership exists to bring a project back

on the path if it is determined it is lost.

Can the project manager present

documentation that details the

business objectives of the project?

individuals as it is likely to

create a possible tangent to

the agenda. Instead, any

inquiries to specific project

participant comments shouldbe responded to simply by

stating that more specific

information will be given later.

Remind the project manager

that he or she will be provided with a copy of the final report and that

nothing will be held from him or her. The reason behind waiting to

provide information in its totality is that the results will have more

value when considered as a whole, and offering up information in

piecemeal will have less value to the project manager who is

attempting to bring a lost effort back on the path to completion

Again, it is important to remind the project manager that the PSARteam is an advocate for the project effort and the project team.

Discuss with the project manager that the input he provides will

assist the PSAR team in better understanding the current initiative

and its challenges, if there are any.

In some cases, a project manager may be unwilling to discuss some

or all of the items addressed below. A PSAR interviewer should be

open and respectful during the entire interview and remind the

project manager of the positive benefits of the PSAR Review for him

and for his project. A project manager who is continually unwilling to

cooperate in a PSAR effort is a sign that the project effort could be

lost. Project managers are held to a different level of accountability

than project participants, and the PSAR team should be aware of

project managers who would withhold information as a way to save

themselves over saving the project effort.

There will be project managers who will see the interview as an

opportunity to be heard. They may have already been attempting to

escalate, or signal, that the project was troubled without the signal

being recognized by those who were higher up in the organization.

Project managers who are more interested in the solution being

successful and less concerned about how they will be viewed by the

organization will be moreforthcoming of information.

Although these project

managers

the survival guide to identifying and recovering lost projects

Documents